The Dreaded R-word

What makes a place romantic? If that question had a single answer, every man’s life would be easier. The anniversary is coming up; better make reservations at that place with the romance. Unfortunately, people have a better chance of filtering the air with their bare hands than finding a single universal explanation for romance.

Consulting a dictionary isn’t much help, because the definitions run the gambit from ‘a feeling of adventure, excitement, and the exotic’, to ‘fascination or enthusiasm of an inexplicable kind.’ More than a few eyebrows will be raising with some of these definitions, which only proves that people have a rudimentary understanding of the romantic, and not many of them agree.

Given all the confusion that seems to permeate the written explanation surrounding the word, there seems to be a consensus on a romantic-ness of a place or action when it actually happens. Some boutique bed and breakfast bath boast that it’s a place associated with romance through the ages, though they offer no explanation. It’s probably one of those things that people need to be there to confirm or describe.

Perhaps that’s what romance is. After all, it’s incredibly difficult for an astronaut to describe zero-G to a civilian other than weightlessness, unless a person actually experiences being lighter than air, they’ll never appreciate what it means.

Lexicographer attempts at defining romance as more than a literary form, or a medieval tale of legend is an exercise in futility. It’s a deeply personal experience that can’t be shared between more than two people, so it makes sense that anyone outside of that experience will have no idea what that’s about.

No, public proposals don’t count because the people clapping in the background aren’t part of that beautiful moment; they’re just props that don’t make a difference whether they’re there or not. Many people will disagree that the public display of intimate emotions makes all the difference in the world, and is the most romantic thing anyone can ever do, which brings us back to the no one explanation point.

Perhaps people should stop finding a definition to romance to make their love lives easier, and really experience it. The world of romance gets much easier once someone knows what he or she’s doing, and what to expect.